


So Maybe If We Never Wake Up, We Can See The Sky

by thelarrieswriting



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Friends to Lovers, I'll add more tags as I go like normal I guess, Older Harry, Single Parent Louis, Teen Pregnancy, There's a small age gap - 24/19
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-30
Updated: 2016-05-29
Packaged: 2018-07-11 02:07:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,647
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7021513
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thelarrieswriting/pseuds/thelarrieswriting
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Louis had Alice in the summer between his junior and senior year, he thought that his life was probably just about over. However, that was not the case as he and the child's father, Adam, moved to an apartment, both continuing their education and ending up in college. Now that they were actually in college, Adam was almost always gone for one reason or another, which Louis was kind of thankful for, and Harry, Louis' friend, study buddy, and old neighbor, is at his apartment more often than not, or so it seems. They're just friends and study buddies, though, there definitely aren't any romantic feelings between the two....</p><p>(The summary is vague and bad af, sorry, but the actual fic is better than the summary.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	So Maybe If We Never Wake Up, We Can See The Sky

**Author's Note:**

> Title is from Bulls In The Bronx by Pierce The Veil.

“Lou, I’m going out now,” Adam called over his shoulder as he walked out of the door only ten minutes after he’d finished his dinner. 

This was no surprise to Louis. Adam was always out at nights, whether it was because he “had to study” or he “had extra work” or some other excuse. Louis was tired of it, but they had a kid together and he couldn’t do anything to just remove his kid’s father from their life. He also supposed that it was probably better for both him and his child that he be away for most of the time. 

“Okay, I’m going to put Alice in bed,” Louis said as he finished his own meal and watched as his three-year-old red-headed daughter finished her own meal. 

He didn’t expect an answer other than the door slamming shut after Adam, which is just what he got. He sighed and left Alice to sit in her chair while he washed their plates and cups, picking her up to take her to the bathroom to give her a bath. 

“Is Mr. Harry coming?” Alice asked as she trailed after Louis. 

“I don’t know, do you want him to come over tonight?” Louis asked with a knowing smile, looking down at his feet as he walked to the bathroom, his little shadow following him to the bathroom and waiting in the doorway while Louis started her bath.

“Yeah, so we can play before bedtime,” Alice replied with a grin on her chubby little face.

“You want him to come over and play with you? Well, I suppose that you’re in luck because Mr. Harry is coming over to help me study. Are you going to be a big girl and wash yourself tonight or do you still want help?” Louis asked, knowing that she’d say that she was going to be a big girl and wash herself. 

He stepped out of the bathroom to let Alice wash herself, her anti slip mat underneath her and the tub filled halfway. She’d started bathing herself after she’d learned that she could actually wash her hair and body all by herself. He’d fill the tub with just a few inches of water in the bathroom, the only bathroom in the small apartment, and leave her to wash herself while he either waited up for Harry or cleaned up the table. 

He’d fallen pregnant with Alice when he was a junior in high school, Adam being a senior. They moved into an apartment together a few months before Alice was born, wanting to be under the same roof before the baby was born. 

It was a two bedroom apartment, one bathroom, a small living room, and an almost smaller kitchen. There was enough room for a table in the tiny kitchen/dining room area that sat four. Past that, there was simply no room for extra things to be in that part of the apartment. 

For now, it fit them quite well. They had room to be around each other, and there were usually only two people there, so it was not ever too cramped in the apartment. He finished cleaning up the mess that came from their dinners and put all of the dishes back where they belonged before a knock sounded through the apartment. 

Louis knew who it was without even looking through the peephole and shouted, “It’s open,” before walking out of the kitchen to check on Alice. 

“You know, you should really stop doing that. What if I had been a murderer or something?” Harry asked as he rounded the corner and stepped into the bathroom where Louis was now pulling Alice from the bathtub and wrapping her up in her pink and white towel. 

“Well, if you were a murderer, I don’t think that you’d be here exactly when my best friend was supposed to be here and you probably wouldn’t knock, but then again Criminal Minds and CSI and all of those shows have put a slight fear, that clearly didn’t keep me from leaving my door unlocked, that a murderer or something will come in and kill me because I do stupid things like that,” Louis rubbed the towel over Alice’s head. 

“Hello, Mr. Harry!” Alice cheered from where she was getting her hair ruffled. 

“Hello Alice, how’s my favorite red head today?” Harry asked with a smile, her brilliant blue eyes shining brightly against her freckled cheeks and flaming hair. She looked absolutely nothing like the brunette, fair skin teenager standing in front of him. 

“Great Mr. Harry, are we going to play before bedtime?” 

“You’ll have to ask your daddy if we can play before you have to go to bed. You still have to brush your teeth and your hair, you don’t want to have stinky breath and knotted hair when you go to bed, do you?” Harry asked gently, helping her hold the towel around her naked body. 

“Daddy please can Mr. Harry play with me before I go to bed?” 

“We’ll see how long you take to brush your teeth and hair. Remember, two minutes on brushing your teeth, thirty seconds with the mouthwash, and the detangling spray is the blue and green bottle with the mango on it,” Louis said. 

He was constantly impressed with how well Alice was doing vocabulary wise. However, it did make sense as they read more than anything else as they didn’t have enough money to pay for television and as of now, there wasn’t a need for Netflix or anything. 

“Harry, can you go to the living room and get our books opened to the pages we need to be on? I’ve got to make sure that Miss. Sneakypants over here doesn’t cheat her way out of taking care of her teeth and hair,” Louis said, his eyes focussed on his child, a small smile still covering his face. 

“Yeah, of course, are we studying or doing homework?” Harry asked, watching as Louis tiredly watched his daughter. 

It sometimes made him sick to think that Louis cared so much for his daughter while Adam seemed to feel the exact opposite. In some strange way, Harry had been filling Adam’s large shoes in these last two years or so. 

Rather than Adam being the one to put Alice to bed when Louis was simply too tired to do so himself, Harry put her to bed. Harry took days out of his school and work schedule to make time for Alice when she became ill and Louis, for whatever reason, couldn’t take care of her for a day or so. Harry got her presents when he went somewhere and found something that he thought she’d like. It was all just a very weird set up and it was mostly hidden from Adam as far as Harry knew.

“Homework, we don’t have a test until the week after next, remember? We’ve got that mean ass substitute who, thankfully, won’t be handing out tests, so we just have to do homework,” Harry said, watching Louis blink slowly, his eyelids threatening to stay shut every time his eyes closed, “Hey, Lou, do you need to go lay down? Are you okay? I can put Alice in bed tonight, why don’t you get some rest and then I can leave a copy of the notes on your bedside table for you to hold on to.” 

“No, I’m good, it’s fine,” Louis said as he pushed himself off of the doorframe. 

“Louis, go lie down in your bed. I’ll make sure that Alice gets her teeth and hair finished. She’s already dressed anyway. She’ll be okay, Lou, just go get some rest. You deserve the rest after all of the hard work you do for everyone, alright?” Harry eyed the nineteen-year-old. He looked completely exhausted and it was both worrying and upsetting that Louis wasn’t taking care of himself. 

“Please Harry, just,” Louis sighed heavily and rubbed the left side of his face with his left hand, “I’m fine. I need to get these notes and the homework done. Alice has to be up tomorrow super early, though, so just shh. I’m fine, she’s fine, everything is fine.” 

“Clearly not everything is fine, Louis. Something is clearly wrong with you. Let me put Alice in bed, you go to bed, I’ll leave a copy of the notes and I’ll text you the answers to the homework in the morning,” The twenty-four-year-old said, trying not to get aggravated at Louis. 

“Hush Harry, I’m fine, just let me put Alice in bed after she’s finished and we can do the homework…. Just, please, let me be in peace and quiet, my head is hurting really bad right now,” Louis said. 

“Lou,” Harry whispered. He hadn’t meant for it to come out so…. Vulnerable sounding, but it is what it is. Louis has a tattoo to prove that theory. 

He walked closer to Louis and wrapped his arms around Louis and pulled him to his chest, letting his rest his head against his strong chest. His breath caught in his throat and he hiccuped. There was no real reason to even be feeling this way about his friend, but when your friend is hurting themselves, even if it was being done unintentionally, it’s hard to just sit back and watch them do it. 

Harry had watched Louis do it since Louis was twelve and they were neighbors, Louis having guys over when his parents were out. Louis grew up way too fast, but Harry knew that he sort of had no choice but to grow up quickly. That didn’t mean that he had to find happiness and comfort in other men, sometimes twice Louis’ age and sometimes close to his age, but Louis had always been the type of person to do whatever he thought was a good idea, even if it wasn’t.

**Author's Note:**

> This chapter was short and basic, but it's an introduction chapter. You're just finding out a little bit about the characters and a little bit about the dynamics between three of them. :)


End file.
